1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless cellular network systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to automatically allocating resources in an adaptive manner to reduce or eliminate the effect of a degradation of a wireless cellular network.
2. Related Art
Currently, wireless telephony services do not provide the same service availability as wireline telephony services. However, wireless telephony services are beginning to replace wireline telephony services. Users of the new wireless telephony services will expect little, if any, change in service availability as a result of the transition to the new technology. As a result, wireless telephony must improve service availability and quality, and ultimately match or exceed that provided by wireline telephony services. Wireless and cellular are used interchangeably throughout this specification.
When viewed from a user's perspective, improvement must occur in the areas of network availability, probability of call success, coverage reliability, and speech and data quality. With respect to network reliability, wireless networks must provide highly available wireless services. In terms of service availability, users will expect availability to equal or exceed that of wireline services. To improve the probability of call success, network caused service degradation must be minimized. The minimization can be measured by a decrease in blocked or dropped calls due to cell congestion, failed equipment, and other service provider problems. With respect to coverage reliability, users will expect service to be consistently available. With respect to speech and data quality, service quality must improve such that calls made from mobile equipment are no longer noticeably degraded.
Wireless networks face a variety of degradation sources that change a wireless network's status. These degradation sources impede the required improvements in service quality. Degradation sources include changes in network equipment availability, changes in user traffic patterns, and changes in radio propagation. Although modern technological advances have produced adjustable network equipment that is more adaptable to changes in a wireless network's status, control mechanisms have not been developed to organize and control the equipment's response to such changes. What is required, therefore, is a network control mechanism that supports adaption of radio coverage in response to the changes in a wireless network's status.